Monday, June 27, 2011

Warm/Cool Top Complete

I love love LOVE this top! Thank you, Jeni, for your Warm/Cool Quilt-Along—I probably wouldn't have gotten around to making this without your QA. My girls love the top too. Miss E. is thrilled that we don't have to give it away. She's already had a good sit-down to check out all the colors and print motifs. Her favorite is the Sherbet Pips dog chasing his ball.

At the last minute I decided to take out most of the HSTs with purple. There were a couple of reasons for that decision—for one thing, I don't have very much purple in my stash, which meant that the colors weren't balanced. And for another thing, most of the purples I do have are fairly warm pinkish purples. So the purples just weren't working in the final layout, they diluted the warm/cool pattern, and out they went. (I did leave a few purples, like the Central Park print in the far right HST above.)

Working this many HSTs is not for the faint of heart, but here are my tips to make it a little easier:

1. Use a mechanical pencil to mark your diagonals. Somehow marking just seemed to go faster and was more accurate with a mechanical pencil versus a standard one.

2. Use a 4.5" quilt square for trimming your HSTs (or whatever size your finished HSTs require). Centering is vastly easier with a square. And if you don't have a 4.5" square, you could do what Elizabeth did and make one out of template plastic (just be sure to mark the diagonal for easier centering).

3. You don't have to stand up while you're trimming your gazillion HSTs! I'm embarrassed it took me so long to realize this, but just in case it hasn't occurred to you either, you can sit down while trimming—you just need a nice, low table. A coffee table might work, or I found that my daughters' little coloring table was the perfect height for trimming while sitting on the couch (I have a large ottoman in my family room instead of a coffee table, so I don't have that option). This discovery made trimming 266 HSTs much more tolerable.

I'm hoping to baste this one in the next couple of days and then try that FMQ again. Can't wait for this one to be complete!

LOVE THIS!!!! It really does look amazing. I am jealous that you are done with yours already, I had some triangles left over from another project so I'm doing the mini size, but I haven't started sewing them together yet...I am very anxious to. Yours is so stunning, I like that you used primary/secondary colors.

It turned out so cheerful and bright! Very nice!I've got three Supernova blocks made! Still a QA delinquent, but trying to redeem myself. The block construction is done in such an interesting manner, I am really enjoying it!

I love the way the warm diamonds pop right off the cool diamonds. I see the cool as the background and the warm as the fun design on top. Well done! This is so much fun. I would be happy too if it got to stay at my house. :)

And I know what you mean about purple... I tend to think of purple as a warm color too and maybe group yellow with the cools more - but I guess that is the deal with splitting the color wheel in half, there are always going to be colors on the edge that could kind of go either way depending on the shade.

about me

pattern shop

Instagram

Sponsors

My Book

Blog Archive

Subscribe by email

sponsors

Disclosures

In addition to my paid sponsors, I sometimes accept free fabric, notions, or tools in exchange for posting about it on this blog or my other social media platforms. But I pledge that this practice will never change one of my product reviews or lead me to use fabric or other items that are not "my style."

I also am an Amazon Affiliate and receive compensation for items ordered via my Amazon links.

Copyright and Permissions FAQ

Can I make a quilt that looks just like one of yours? Of course! You don't need my permission for that. But remember, it's polite (and helpful to others) to credit your source of inspiration.

Can I share one of your photos on my blog or website?Probably! But please contact me for permission first. Use of my photos for commercial purposes is prohibited.

Can I pin your photos to Pinterest? Yes, please do! I love Pinterest!

Can I sell individual items made from your tutorials or patterns? Yes! But please don't open a factory and start churning out hundreds of them. : ) And please do not reproduce or sell the patterns or tutorials themselves. Thank you!